The developers of the practice intelligence platform Cubiko have put up a new cloud-based interoperability platform for healthcare software integrators through an undisclosed investment from medical software provider Best Practice Software.

They also sought the assistance of startup incubator Aginic Ventures in developing the said platform. 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

Called Halo Connect, the platform provides Bp Premier integrators with a single point of integration via a REST and FHIR-compliant API. It was built to seamlessly connect healthcare data on-premise and cloud infrastructure in a "safe, secure and scalable way".

According to Bp, the interoperability platform will provide efficiencies in partner support and may bring down costs associated with the design and development of tools.

After an initial beta test among Cubiko customers, Halo Connect is set to be delivered for key interoperability projects with Bp's partners in aged care and acute care with a target to make the platform available for all its partners in October. 

WHY IT MATTERS

Halo Connect seeks to solve the perceived crisis in healthcare interoperability in Australia. 

While more and more cloud-native software integrators are joining the healthcare industry – from telehealth to accounting software – the underlying architecture of data transfer between various systems "remained the same," noted Chris Seed, founder of Halo Connect and Cubiko.

He added: "Data was siloed across government agencies, on-premise software or SaaS software integrators. This led to worse patient outcomes, increased costs for all parties and increased challenges in doing business".

"With the speed at which digital health is progressing towards omnichannel patient-centred healthcare, providing reliable, quality, secure, and real-time access to patient records is more important than ever," commented Dr Frank Pyefinch, CEO and founder of Bp Software.

THE LARGER TREND

The launch of Halo Connect comes more than a year after Cubiko raised over $1 million to build and scale more clinical software offerings.

As interoperability is a "perennial challenge" in Australian healthcare, the South Western Sydney Primary Health Network has also sought to solve this issue by undertaking a project to enable various health facilities and services to provide easy and timely access to patient-consented health records across the care spectrum. The integrated Real-time Active Data project, which is based on Altera Digital Health's interoperability platform dbMotion, currently connects 70 care sites with 40 more sites slated for integration by yearend.